~ A place to share and discover more about volunteering at The Salisbury Museum

1950…More from Volunteer Alan Clarke

Salisbury Museum (SM) has recently received a Bishop Wordsworth School (BWS) image archive. The Salisbury Museum volunteers have catalogued all the items and are now about to scan them. Then the next process will be trying to find out as much as possible about each image and including this information in the jpeg metadata.

There are several glass plates, which of course have nothing written on the back. This image here is from one of these glass plates. It was one of five glass plates in a box labelled ‘1950’. Thus it appears to be a BWS class in about 1950, almost 70 years ago. I suspect that as the boys would now be in their 80’s, I will be unable to identify any of them but you never know.

This classroom still exists in the school’s Chapel block. I hadn’t realised before, no windows to look out as it might distract from learning?

Also the pupils and master (mistress?) must have had good eyesight to see in dim winter light. The image only shows one small light bulb.

A friend and former BWS teacher said “I presume this is Room D (Charles Bacon’s room) but I remember it with sloping desks rather than flat desks – and more ceiling hung lights. In my time ties would be worn and jackets optional.” Charles Bacon, a maths master, retired long ago. Flat desks have an advantage over sloping desks in that they can be placed together to form a large flat surface, as illustrated in the image.

I like the mechanical method of opening the windows by operating the large lever, a glorious piece of Victorian engineering. I wonder how the paintings and notices were placed so high up. Was a ladder used to put them up? No compulsory health and safety considerations. Could they be read, being so high – of course, as already alluded to, eyesight was much better in 1950 than today.

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About Salisbury Museum

Salisbury Museum is based in the King's House, a beautiful medieval building, located opposite Salisbury Cathedral. As a grade I listed building the King's House has a history as fascinating as the collections it now holds. And the museum is once again adding to that rich history as it begins an exciting new phase of redevelopment. Over the next few years Salisbury Museum will be renovating its galleries, breathing new life into its wonderful collections.
The museum's archaeological collections are of outstanding national significance, including some of the most important finds outside a national museum in Britain, and include artifacts from the Stonehenge World Heritage site, the Pitt Rivers Wessex collection, and the Amesbury archer. In June 2012 the museum was awarded £1.8 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the redevelopment of its archaeological galleries in recognition of the importance of the collections. The archaeological collections are currently in storage awaiting their new home in the new Archaeology of Wessex gallery, which will be open in Spring 2014. Although the archaeological collections are pack away, there is still loads to see and do at Salisbury museum.
The museum holds rich and diverse collections relating to the people of Salisbury and the history of the city and surrounding area. Collections include a wonderful medieval collection, with finds from the medieval city, as well as sites like Old Sarum and Clarendon Palace; fascinating displays of costumes and ceramics; and an impressive art collection that includes works by J M W Turner, John Constable, Augustus John and Rex Whistler. The museum also host regular temporary exhibitions.